The girlfriend of late Cowboys star Marshawn Kneeland is pregnant, Dallas head coach Brian Schottenheimer revealed just days after his death.
Kneeland died by apparent suicide at the age of 24 last week, roughly 48 hours after he scored his first NFL touchdown for the Cowboys against the Arizona Cardinals.
On Wednesday, Schottenheimer also announced that the team had set up a memorial fund to support his girlfriend, Catalina Mancera, and the unborn baby.
‘She’s pregnant and so we want to make sure she is taken care of and the baby is taken care of for the rest of their lives – it’s very important to our guys and to us,’ he said.
‘The organization have been amazing, we’ve started the Marshawn Kneeland memorial fund where we can all give and support Catalina.’
When asked how his team will get through this tragedy, Schottenheimer said: ‘One day at a time. Because it’s going to hit everybody different. I wasn’t sure I could get through my part of last night – speaking at his candlelight vigil – and I did.
Marshawn Kneeland, pictured with his girlfriend, Catalina Mancera, died earlier this month
‘You just take it one day at a time and you don’t have to have all the answers. We don’t have all the answers. We probably won’t have all the answers.
‘But you lean into one another, you love on one another. I go back to the culture and the guys in that locker room. We’ll be OK because of the strength they draw from one another.
‘We have some guys that have been through this. I’ve never been through something like this – [something] that hits this close to home.’
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